"Yamahoko" Float Parade Takes Center Stage at Kyoto's Gion Festival

Kyoto, July 17 (Jiji Press)--A procession of "yamahoko" floats, the highlight of Kyoto's Gion Matsuri summer festival, took place on Friday, with 23 floats adorned with elaborate textiles, embroidery and other decorations parading through the streets of the western Japan city to the sound of the festival's traditional "konchiki-chin" music.

At around 9 a.m., the procession set off with the Naginatahoko float leading the way. Spectators lining the route cheered and applauded as the festival's sacred child, believed to be a divine messenger, cut the "shimenawa" rope stretched across the street, and as the massive floats performed the dramatic "tsuji-mawashi" maneuver, turning at the Shijo-Kawaramachi intersection in central Kyoto.

A 53-year-old man visiting from Mexico with his family said that the music and costumes were wonderful and that he was impressed by how people in Kyoto preserve their traditions.

A 19-year-old university student from Kagawa Prefecture said, "It's far more impressive in person than it appears on social media."

The Gion Matsuri, one of Japan's three most famous festivals, is a ritual festival of Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto's Higashiyama Ward and is said to have originated in the Heian period (794-1185), when people erected floats and prayed to quell epidemics that had spread through the city. On July 24, the Ato Matsuri festival will take place, featuring a procession of 11 other floats through the city.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]